Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Best Comic Ever!

Some comic fans discover their favorite comic at an early age. Most times it's that one issue that really hooked them and molded their views on how a comic should be. (I'm looking at you, Chris Sims)

But then there's the rest of us who don't really have that experience. I know I started reading because the cool kid was and I wanted to be like him. Thousands of books later, I find myself reading because of a love for the medium and discovering the corners of continuity that never get much light. It was here that I found my new favorite book:

Hercules Prince of Power #4

The last issue in the Hercules miniseries by Bob Layton (which, incidentally, has a sequel coming out in a couple of months) includes all of my favorite things: Crazy action, drinking, and Galactus. Suddenly my life is complete.

As the story begins, Herc is being celebrated as the hero he is by the inhabitants of Ciegrim-7 (Ha, get it?), the beer planet

The celebration commences with everyone getting wasted, it's like Herc died and went to God Heaven. But of course, when things are going really awesomely, there's always a buzzkill. Enter Nova (Frankie Ray, not Richard Rider):

Herc's response is pretty much what you'd expect from anyone in his position: GTFO!

And wouldn't you know it, but a huge fight breaks out. Herc is no slouch when someone comes between him and his libations, so he goes all out, throwing everything he can at the interloper. But then, the unspeakable happens:

NOT THE BEER!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

*Ahem.

Sorry, I got a little worked up there.

From the burning rubble, Frankie emerges unscathed and quite possibly drunk as she realizes who she's fighting... and gets hot.

Good thing for her the only thing Herc likes more than drinking is whoring.

While they're off 'talking', Galactus is getting pissed. For centuries he's had a free lunch waiting for him at the edge of this galaxy, but now thanks the the machinations of Hercules (probably form the proceeding three issues) it's not there anymore.

Tired, hungry, and impatient, Galactus decides he's going to eat Ciegrim-7 whether Frankie comes back to tell him it's a good planet or not.

Herc, finished with his 'chat' with Frankie, knows that this aggression cannot stand and takes the fight straight to the man in the funny purple hat.

It doesn't go well for Herc. He's smacked down and tossed aside, left to reconsider his tactics while Galactus gets his grub on.

Then Herc asks Galactus the question that I've always wanted to ask:

And they proceed to get drunk together.

In the end, they share a few laughs and Galactus decides that getting wasted is just as good as eating, opting to leave the famed beer planet alone. So while Galactus flies off looking for something else to snack on, Herc heads back to the planet looking for something else...